


Walking in the Form of My Elders

by orphan_account



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Elemental Magic, Gen, Meditation, Mikey would be the avatar, Please know I have an entirely different headcanon for their bending talents, Rat dad praising their sweet faces, Training, duh - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 11:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12530396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The elements of a soul





	Walking in the Form of My Elders

**Author's Note:**

> Title curtesy of Anderson.Paak

“Imagine a flame. It is burning.”

Duh. What else would it do? He didn’t know why this new meditation thingy was so important. Or so hard. Normally meditation was sitting very still and breathing and hoping Sensei didn’t smack you for not doing the first two well enough. Still, he was pretty sure he’d have an easier time being on fire if Sensei had ever let him play with matches like he’d wanted.

“You are burning very brightly.”

Mikey squinted-even with his eyes closed. He’d sat in the middle, directly under the beaming sun. It felt good across his face, even if it would only get hotter, the longer he was trapped here. This was the hottest room in the lair, and he could already feel himself sweating, just in the creases of his knees behind his kneepad. Don was breathing, whistling beside him, the only moving air. He wanted to _move_.

He didn’t.

“A spark.

Mikey took a deep breath. Overhead, the wind shifted.

“Into flame.”

He _caught_.

“Good job.” Master Splinter told him, and Mikey felt the fire in his heart fan brighter, warming him from the inside out.

___

“You are a deep pool.”

Leo took a breath, setting his shoulders straight, centering his spine. Settling into stillness in a way he was rarely allowed. Maybe that was why he enjoyed meditation. He had been excited when Master Splinter told him they’d be trying a new technique, unlike everyone else. He’d practically had to drag them here.

“Slow currents run through you.”

Hold still too long during training, and you’d end up flat on your back. Stay in one spot in a fight and you’d end up dead. Stop moving. Stop _progressing_ , and he’d never be the leader they needed him to be.

“A million drops form a lake.”

Another deep breath in, and Leo let it out slow.

  
Move too fast, and his control flew to pieces. Lashing out like Raph, goofing off like Mikey - distancing himself like Donatello. Leo took another breath to the count of seven, although he hadn’t needed to count since he was a much younger turtle.

In the center of himself, began a single drop.

Who touched a drop.

Who touched a drop, until Leo settled and beat at the shores of his mind, a great restful beast. At balance with the shore around him. An inhale and the tide receded. An exhale pushed it out again.

“Excellent work, Leonardo." Master Splinter told him, and even in his depths he was pleased.  
___

  
“You blow.”

Master Splinter paused, and Raph chuckled under his breath. Just quiet enough to not get scolded. Don pursed his lips. He wasn’t in the mood to do _nothing_.

“You drift.”

When _was_ he? He’d been doing something way more interesting. He usually was, not that they’d agree. Genius; oft ignored in it’s time.

“Everywhere, unseen.”

Sounded like math. Everything in the universe acting within a set standard of comprehensible laws, based around immutable fact. Limits, laws, magic. A reality. Simulation in real time. Always happening, and faster than his brain could calculate, although it _ached_ to try.

To slip free and fly as fast as the whole world, experiencing _everything_ , and faster than even his legs could carry him. To make his thoughts _quantum_.

Turn his mind to air.

“Ah, Donatello.” Master Splinter said, amused. “How unexpected.”

__

“Silent. Solid. Still.”

Raph sat, back straight, chin out, tried to follow instructions:

Breathe in. Breath out. Sit here and _die of boredom_ , that’s what he really meant. Sink slowly into his grave, while Master Splinter yapped away. He needed to move. Scratch his leg. Stretch his shell.

“Steady and unmoving.”

Leo hadn’t moved though, which meant he wouldn’t.

“Patient. Permanent.”

Breathe in. (Don’t move) Breathe out.

“Eternal.”

An eternal pain in his _ass_. Meditation was so stupid. Eternal _suffering_. And to think- Leo was probably _enjoying_ this. Fine. That was fine. Raphael could sit here forever. Like a goddamned rock. His spine easing his descent into the earth.

He wanted to fight the feeling.

Fighting was _moving_. Breathe in-

( _don’t move_ )

-breathe out, and instead he felt himself sink.

“Well done, Raphael.” Master Splinter said.

It seemed to come from high above and far away.

**Author's Note:**

> Fire and water make steam in the air. Add salt and you've got [turtle soup.](http://honeyedlion.tumblr.com/) Yikes!


End file.
